Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

With a globally increasing mean temperature and drier summers in Europe, forest fires are becoming a wider known issue in the forest landscape. Having been part of the boreal forest landscape for millennia, their influence becomes more pronounced due to these changes. Sweden is one of the exemplary countries with a highly productive forestry sector and had far-reaching wildfires in 2014 and 2018 allowing it to be an interesting study region.

In this study, I analyse the representation of nature in the context of forest fire management in order to understand how nature is taking part in the management mechanics and how nature in its occurrence as fire is conceptualized by the stakeholders. The results produced by this paper are formed by interviews of key stakeholders in forest fire management in Jämtland, a country in the north of Sweden. The analysis is based on representation theory (O’Neill. 2001, Wysocki. 2012, Boström et al. 2018, Guasti & Geissl. 2019) and my understanding of these theorems.

My results and analysis propose that a predominantly scientific approach to understanding nature is being applied. The representatives of nature are the experts that claim to have scientific and academic knowledge, experience within the field and are accepted by their colleagues in this claim. They use scientific language and knowledge as a means to represent nature. This results in a focus on control of nature that contrasts with the emerging theme of nature as having ‘intrinsic values’, a voice, and the need for a standing, in human processes. I argue that the scientific perspective excludes alternatives of validating and grasping nature and through that prevent a less controlling and more intimate perspective to surface.

By connecting nature representation theory to a local context, this paper aims to contribute to the wider understanding of how nature representation is developed. It further opens the field for further studies regarding nature representation and how it affects modern management systems.